Community Meeting: Con Ed Grand Street Project Q&A
Good evening, everyone. Thank you all for coming. And for those watching at home, thank you for tuning in. My name is Bryan Healy, village manager here in Croton, and we're here tonight to discuss the impacts of Con Edison's, gas line gas main replacement project. And so I'll be happy to turn the mic over to Jeffrey Ramirez from Con Edison who's going to give a high level overview of the project.
Good evening, everyone. So right now, I have with me Sean Khan, who's gonna be the Con Edison supervisor, John LaFrance, who is the John Fia foreman super for the project. And the scope of the work is we're upgrading our high pressure lines from steel cast iron to plastic from Old Post Road on Grand Street all the way up let's see here. From Grand Street all the way up to Gerstein Street. Gerstein. Gerstein. And then also where and then also up, Mount Airy Road up to King Street. The project involves replacing like I I like I mentioned before, it's old cast iron steel pipe with new eight inch plastic pipe. The duration of the project should be, if everything goes well, approximately, I'm gonna say, five to seven months depend it's we have to deal with a lot of customers and setting up schedules to transfer their services from the old main to the new main. And, I mean, that's really it. I don't think does anybody have any questions of yes.
And my driveway and everything is there. How is that gonna affect me being being able to get in and out of my house and getting onto some of the other streets.
So, typically, the the first part of the project, we do some test pits to identify the lane that we're gonna use. These are smaller pits, you know, four by four, five by five. That usually typically takes about a week in that area that we're planning to work. And then when we're trenching, if we're trenching in front of your property, typically, our foreman would just let notify you guys that we're there. And if it's a driveway that we'll be covering, we'll have, like, a steel plate with us. And if you come out five, ten minutes before and just tell us you need to step out to go, you know, run errands or anything like that, we'll put a plate over the over the trench on in the through your driveway, and then you have access in and out. Okay. So at no point, you should have you know, it should be very limited to, like, a short window of us having to put a plate over the area where, you have to drive
over. So the whole of Grand Street is gonna be affected as far as, the pipes and everything put in there? Correct. Okay. And you'll be doing a little at a time, though. You won't be tearing the whole street up at at one full
No. So, typically, we try to do about a 100 feet a day 100 feet a day. Of trenching and pipe installation.
Sorry. Glad you're here. And it's always, I know, hard to for a project like this, which is necessary and and will do do a great deal of good. And when it's finished, of course, first, have to go through, you know, the process of getting there. So we appreciate all that that you're doing by being here and explaining it. Couple of questions. One is, you know, we had that project on Albany last year, which Albany Post Road, which, you know, I I think there's a certain amount of disruption, but, you know, we we got through it. Can you explain how traffic will operate in terms of the the flag man, and will there be one one lane always open and going both ways? Just how does that typically operate in a situation like this? Typically,
on Grand Street, we're looking to possibly take up the parking either on on one side or both sides depending on how it's set up, and we'll have two flag people there. And if we have both sides of parking taken up, most likely, we'll be able to maintain two way traffic. If not, it would be alternate
Right. Back and forth. But but definitely a flag man, flag woman Yes. On on on on the scene. That's that's terrific. Yeah. And when when would you, if everything goes according in terms of, you know, paperwork and all whatever you need to do, when do we start, do you think, on this? So we're looking to start July 18. Okay. So with five five or six months, that gets us a little bit into winter. Does the cold weather affect the what what you anticipate in terms of the workflow and all that? No. Just Okay. It's typically the same winter and summer. Okay. Well Ideally, we'd like to try to maximize the the summer hours to try to get more more work in. Okay. Well, my main message to Con Ed is, on Grant Street, there's some great restaurants. So I hope I hope that's where you guys will be going for lunch. Yes. Okay. And and other streets around Croton.
I'm sorry. I'm deputy mayor here. I I just and I may have missed this because you saw I came in a bit late. But, obviously, the fire department, if you already covered this, you know, just tell me. But the Grand Street Fire Department is on the side that you're working on, and have you been working with the fire department to work the on the firehouse to work that out? We've we've met with them when we did our initial walk through, and then once we hand out the letters, we'll meet with them again.
And I believe we could I think they have multiple ways in and out, we'll try to have at least one way always so that even we don't have to put any plates at all. Oh. So we'll we'll work in front of the firehouse, we'll work so that coordinate so that there's egress all the time. Okay. Thank you.
Hi. Yep. Yep. My name is Mark McDermott, 138 Grand Street. You had mentioned you're gonna probably do about a 100 feet a day. That means you're probably only gonna be in front of our spot, in front of my spot or anyone's spot probably for about a day or two tops. And then there's the main that goes down, and then there's lines that go out to the street.
So the that's for the main installation. After that, we would have to, at some point, tie back into the existing main and then work on the services. So the and that's something that we arrange with each of the customers. So whatever work we have to do with you, we'll get in contact with you and set up a schedule that works for you to, you know, let us turn off the service for one day, transfer it over to the to the new main, and then go from
Okay. I just one one last question. There's an old oak tree that's right out in front of one between my house, 140 and 138. And I was just wondering if the line goes between the buildings and the tree, and then there's a line that goes on the left side, and there's a line that goes on the right side. You know, you think that tree's gonna stand
or it's too early to tell you. You really have to excavate and see what's what's going on. So one, you just gotta figure out exactly what we're doing to some of the house. Some of the houses might have been already upgraded, so it's just a transfer. So that means everything all the work that we have to do is out in the street, and we wouldn't have to excavate anything in the sidewalk. And then some of them are, like they're called inserts, which also will only allow us to have to make one hole in the sidewalk where the curve valve is, then we can kinda use the old pipe to push so it kinda it's all depends on what exactly our engineering department is saying to do with the house. Alright. Perfect. Thank thank you.
Just a quick follow-up. I know you've got an awful lot of work to do with with the overall project, but with respect to putting the the surface of the of the road back in in good condition after, how does how does that work? Is that section by section, or do you wait until it's all over in terms of, you know, getting getting getting it back to being smooth and whole and all that? So I as we as we do the work, we temporarily restore it with
liking kind of asphalt on top. Yeah. But the final restoration is typically done at the end. Okay. And and that bicondent?
I was just going say there's a lot of service connections that have to be transferred over. And maybe just to give a kind of, I know we talked about it briefly, maybe just give a brief overview of speaking to the customers that are out there, what they are looking forward to expect with the process. How does that work kind of as if you were talking to a bunch of customers in in here and trying to, tell them, you know, obviously, the specifics are gonna be different for each service connection, but in general. So in general, you're gonna see us out in the street installing the the main. Then once we do our full ties in and our new main is gassed in,
but prior to that, we'll hand out resident letters to everybody on the block so they'll be aware that we're already there working. And then as we get the main energized, we'll start going out and asking for getting appointments with everybody. And then that's where it kinda it's all about coordination. Some you know, somebody may not be there for a week. They you know, either they wanna do it Monday or Friday, and we just coordinate back and forth until everybody is transferred over. So, typically typically,
myself or John will go to your house, will knock on the door. We'll we'll make the appointment with you. Obviously, if we can make an appointment with you quick, the faster we can get off the block. If it delays, then, you know, the project delays. But it's best that we get the services done and we make the appointment. Obviously, certain circumstances may push you out, like, week or two. You're on vacation. You know? But when we're doing the gas service, usually, it's about an an eight hour window where your gas will be shut off while we're doing the work. Once we complete that work, Con Ed will actually come and relight all the appliances that are gas fired in your residence or business, and then we'll get you back online. So we like to do that, you know, during the daytime if possible. Some people work at night. We might have to schedule that turn on person from Con Ed to come at a different time, maybe, you know, the next day, but we typically like to do it the same day.
Well, yeah, I I know from talking to my friend to my left that you're making visits to all of the the merchants, residents, and and I'm I'm assuming that's that's going well. And is that is that completed yet, or you still have some to do?
We have not met with any of the business owners yet. As the project starts, we'll be out on the street. We'll be meeting people, you know, handing out business cards. Myself or John, you'll see us out there or another conduct inspector who'll be on the site every single day as well to answer any questions, any concerns you guys might have. So we'll be out there. That's great. And every every business or resident will will have a a contact number? Absolutely. Directly to the team? Absolutely. I I believe my name is already on the
letter that went out. Great. The letter has an email address Yep. And a name. The the work notification that will be or you've already received or will receive shortly has two email addresses Great. And, Sean's name.
Yeah. I'm I'm a trustee as well, so I'm not not lucky enough to live on Grand Street, so I haven't gotten the letter. But maybe someday. But, appreciate it. I I live on Grand Street, and I haven't gotten anything either.
You have So we're we're waiting for basically this meeting, and then to like, by tomorrow, we're gonna be handing out letters. But we've already walked through Grand Street, already with the town, and people were asking us, and we're kinda just kinda verbally updating them with what's going on. But the letter should go out tomorrow and then emails to follow probably possibly by the end of the week. If you have a con Edison email account, you'll see a notification as well.
Yeah. And then we will also provide it to the village, and they can post it or send it. The village will also have a copy of it so they can post it on their Facebook or your website or whatever.
And just I don't know if this has been said or not already, but the hours that you're gonna be working and the days, if you wanna just address that. Sure. So for right now, for the summer, ideally, we're looking work from 8AM to 7PM
and six days a week, Monday through Saturday. That's what we're looking for. And then I guess if when school's back in session, then we'll arrange that so that we don't interfere with it. And, you know, just
by comparison, say compared to normal construction, what what kind of noise would we anticipate in the typical day?
We'll be using the backhoe trench. So Yeah. There'll be So so that kind of There will yes. There will be noise. Okay. Yeah. You can hear jackhammering.
You'll hear Some jack. Alarms from the dump trucks Okay. And the backhoes when they back up. Yeah. Those will Okay. So no normal End of the day Right. They'll be resetting plates. And Right. In the morning, you'll hear them removing the plates
Right. Row plates. But I think yeah. I I think as long as, you know, we it's it's within the hours that we've discussed, I think, you know, Croton is is used to some of that stuff happening. So And then during those hours, we will be installing pipes, so there will be
noise levels, like, lower. At that point, they're not really using backhoes Right. It's not dumping. And it's not a constant noise because you're
using it, then you're installing, and then using it again. So it's good to know. Great.
I was just wondering, when you're putting the pipe in the ground, like my sidewalk is probably 10 foot long, You know, you're gonna be probably cutting down the middle of it. You know, I I could see the yellow lines that were on the ground. How big of a of a cutout are you gonna make? And when you repair that, is that repaired with concrete or you're repairing the whole entire sidewalk? Are you just repairing the the part that you actually removed?
So the the new main looks like it's gonna you know, based on we haven't done test pits yet, but based on what's out there right now, it's gonna be between the it's gonna be in the parking lane. Oh, it is in the parking lane? It So won't be in the side No. But any any sidewalks we damage, if it's a, like, a five by five flag and we, you know, cut through it, we'll replace the we'll replace the flag
with like in kind. Yeah. Because I can see the guest the guest squares or Yeah. For lack of a better way, you turn it on and off. You know, you're gonna have to replace those two as well. Right? Depending if nobody's been like, if somebody's upgraded over time, then most likely we may not have to.
But you'll be replacing whatever you chop out. Yes. Yeah. If the service is plastic and ready, we're just gonna transfer it to the new main. If it's steel, it's steel, old steel service, those are the ones that we're gonna be digging most likely in the sidewalk. But even some of those valves, even if it is on plastic, it could be an older plastic valve that we wanna remove anyway that used tend to leak. So we'd wanna get rid of those anyway as well. Alright. Perfect. Thank you.
So on that, with the eight inch plastic that what's obviously, it's an improvement, you know, over what what you're taking out. What's what's a reasonable lifespan for that? Are we talking fifty years or thirty year? Do we know? Well, I guess we'll find out. We've been talking. Yeah. It's Forever? Yeah. It's what we're being told. It's for a lifetime. Will take forever. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's good. That's what we're being told. That's where you gas trucks out. That's great. And that's that's standard for this kind of work, obviously. Yeah. Yeah. That's great.
We're we we welcome you as temporary residents of of Croton with all of the all of the joy and responsibility that comes with us. Thank you. I appreciate it. Look look forward to seeing you all around.
I just wanna say thank you to, Con Edison, and, you know, we appreciate your willingness to come here tonight and address the concerns of of our residents. And, you know, for anyone watching if or watching this tonight or watching it later in the week, feel free to reach out to my office. Or if once you get the letter, you can reach out directly to Con Edison's representatives, and, you know, we'll be happy to address any other questions you have. Alright. Thank you all. Have a good night. Thank you.